I mixed 1 part bees wax with 3 parts mineral oil, put it into a glass jar and put in the mircowave, just add about 30 seconds at a time, to slowly melt it, then stir well, let it cool, the consistency is about like a paste wax.

Jim, yes they are a temporary finish, unless and until you shellac over them. I intend to use Shellac or poly over this and see what happens. Of course I won’t be doing this to wet blanks so I think I’ll turn dry from now on. Wet is just too much effort for the result which so far as I can tell is only ease of turning.

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

Smitty, the microwave idea will change the stucture of the bees wax. It needs to melt at around 180-220 F. Try that on your next batch and see if it comes out better. They say to put it in a bowl and float the bowl on some gently boiling water in a stock pot.

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.

I made up a half-batch of Cap’n Eddie’s sanding wax a year or more back … just followed the instructions on his website. Stuff works great and lasts forever. I poured the liquid into four of those little containers you get with mashed potatoes and gravy at KFC … three of them are still unused and sitting in my finish cabinet.

-- Gerry -- "I don't plan to ever really grow up ... I'm just going to learn how to act in public!"

I’ve been having some great luck with pumice and mineral oil on the interior of some of my bowls. Nothing else seems to get the micro scratches out of the wood, and I sand to 600g. I might keep the wax and mineral oil for the tools in the shop, they say nothing works better. And keep using mineral oil and pumice on my final sanding. Also baby powder works as a very fine WET sanding grit.

-- A positive attitude will take you much further than positive thinking ever will.